rafibomb

A budding franchise cornerstone for every team:
https://www.mlb.com/news/every-mlb-team-potential-franchise-cornerstone
Angels: Logan O’Hoppe, C
Age on Opening Day: 24
You can take your pick among O’Hoppe, first baseman Nolan Schanuel, shortstop Zach Neto (or even Mickey Moniak, if you’re feeling frisky), but O’Hoppe looks like the one most likely to be an All-Star in the next few years. For all the worries about the Angels’ farm system, it should be said that they have those four players (all 25 or under) in their lineup, plus Reid Detmers and Chase Silseth in their projected rotation.

Lol he’s resorted to begging for a job on Twitter.  Pretty clear no ones interested.  Don’t stop studying Japanese

Having another young relief arm with options was needed. Not sure if Warren had an option left or not but it’s only a good thing to add another live arm for that last rotating bullpen spot.

I find it interesting that Arte has been pretty disconnected from everything since last August.
Arte was absent at Ron Washington’s press conference. 
Arte’s reaction after Shohei Ohtani left. 
Perry has only signed relievers, major league reserves and minor league depth. 
Overall vagueness of the organization. The direction of the team and the club’s PR just seems off.
Zero updates on Tempe Diablo Stadium’s refurbishment
No news on the stadium land deal.
This could all be a sign that like the Orioles, Arte may be doing a silent sale of the Angels. 

And for the record, EVERY TEAM AND THEIR FANS over estimate their own prospects value. I get that.
When someone that hates the Angels sees Schanuel, they see a non-muscular 1B with no power or upside. He's Casey Kotchman or James Loney. Irrelevant. Replaceable with literally anybody. 
When I see Schanuel, I see a 6'4" athletic kid that needed no minor league time to post an OBP over .400 in the major leagues. He's got a beautiful Japanese style swing and will hit for power very soon. He's Freddie Freeman or Joey Votto and will make several all-star teams. 
And the reality is somewhere in the middle. The lack of power as a 1B in concerning. But the fact that he's only 21, went straight to majors from a smaller college program and found significant success, suggests that his basement floor is as a major league regular for the next decade plus.
And that's worthy of being on the top 100. One could argue that's worthy of being in the top 10, depending on your preferences. That part is erroneous though. As long as he's in the top 100, that's all that matters. He's got just as much of a chance at ROY as anyone else and the Angels have a decent shot at getting a pretty solid prospect they otherwise never would have gotten, as a result.

Aw.com lore!

Rondons!!!!
Has it actually been TEN years this July since he was included in the Huston Street deal?
I feel old.

I think I'd rather have a 22 year old hard throwing pitcher than a 26 year old guy who is a strike out machine....

I don't know you, but I do know that just about everyone is going through something that the rest of us know nothing about.  I appreciate your being candid.  I wish you the best and hope you overcome whatever it is you're going through.

Oh I know. I have never felt unwelcome here. 

I would not be surprised if Votto had one last decent half-season's worth of PAs in him if a team utilized him right. Even a .750-.800 OPS wouldn't surprise me, and would be a great part-time option. Would be good to have a PH on the bench with some capability to be a threat with runners on or when they need a walk.

Two pitches over 102, three over 99, and four over 92, so it's pretty promising. 
I'm still in the "prove this actually translates" mode with pitch modeling, but one of the things that they make clear is that they need to see a certain number of pitches before the numbers mean anything, so it may be a bit early to make any real statements about him,
But the early data pretty much jives with what we have seen, eye test wise.  His sinker has been crappy -- his FB as a whole just doesn't move much which is why a guy with his velocity hasn't seen the results.  

But his slider and cutter grade out really nicely.
The whole idea behind pitch modeling is to take the movement and velocity and compare it to the league average.  If you then compare how those pitches grade out to the data at say Baseball Savant for the actual and expected results for the pitch types it's crazy how well the two data points match up.
For instance, his four seamer had a stuff+rating of 84 -- if you look at how hitters fared vs that pitch you'll see a wOBA of .423 which is awful.  Meanwhile his cutter comes in at 105 with a wOBA of .202
This is why I obsess over crap like this.  You watch him pitch you see the plus velocity but the lack of movement and then you watch him give up hard hit contact as a result.  So it's nice to be able to go look for stuff like this that isolates movement/velocity and allows you to compare that info to the actual results in order to formulate an opinion based on more than just what you think you know.  Silseth is a work in progress but there are things in his tool box that you can't teach and the Angels need to refine.  He's someone ppl should have some hope for.
Back to Canning.. I've been talking him up as a breakout guy for a couple years now, there is now data that shows why that's not just eye test BS..

It was a dead cat bounce season.  Votto/Rendon last 5 seasons
2019 - .261/.357/.411  - 0.6 fWAR  ---- .319/.412/.598 - 6.8 fWAR
2020 -.226/.354/.446 - 0.4 fWAR ---- .286/.418/.497 - 2.5 fWAR
2021 - .266/365/.563 - 3.8 fWAR ----.240/.329/383 - 0.1 fWAR
2022 - .205/.319/.370 (-0.8) fWAR ----.229/.326/.380 - 0.8 fWAR
2023 - .202/.314/.433 - 0.0 fWAR ---- .236/.361/.318 - 0.2 fWAR
He's been a sub 1 fWAR player in 4 of the last 5 seasons. 
The only reason to try to frame an argument around "the last three years" is to slant the numbers in such a way as to purposely hide one guy's shit performance and augment the other guy's.
The other thing to remember here is that Votto had played in 482 games over the last 5 years to Rendon's 346 which only serves to mask how much worse Votto has been.  fWAR is a counting stat like HRs or RBI -- the more you play the more you compile.  Despite playing in 136 more games he's managed a total of 4 fWAR over the last 5 years to Rendon's 10.4.  Or if you break it down to fWAR per game Votto comes in at 0.008 fWAR per GP to 0.0300 fWAR for Rendon. 
So yeah... "Last three years" is just more gaslighting BS.
The last two years Rendon has been dogshit and he's still managed to be a positive fWAR player, something that can't be said about Votto. The only thing he's genuinely been better at (staying on the field), has been an actual detriment.
And again -- that's the entire reason for framing the "argument" around "the last three years" instead of the last 2, or 4, or 5 because it's the ONLY way to make it seem like Votto has been anywhere near the player a broken Anthony Rendon has been.
It's comical really. The very real argument and the thing that Rendon needs to prove to people is that he can stay healthy -- something he's not been able to do in three years. Peoples' frustrations with him are 100% warranted. The lack of faith he ever will be may also be.
Completely pointless too.  Angels are stuck with Rendon, Votto, not so much. 
It's funny to see people root against their own best interest because of their own petty BS. If Rendon continues to be injured the only losers will be the Angels because he's going to be paid regardless.

This offseason slowly (and painfully) taking shape. Pretty happy with the last two signings but with them being bullpen arms I’m curious as to what our next move will be. I’m fairly confident we have at least one significant move (and another minor one) left before we are done.

This offseason slowly (and painfully) taking shape. Pretty happy with the last two signings but with them being bullpen arms I’m curious as to what our next move will be. I’m fairly confident we have at least one significant move (and another minor one) left before we are done.

This offseason slowly (and painfully) taking shape. Pretty happy with the last two signings but with them being bullpen arms I’m curious as to what our next move will be. I’m fairly confident we have at least one significant move (and another minor one) left before we are done.

I think we all here wanted Moore back once the Stephenson signing was announced as it was clear we needed another lefty. I’m pumped!!! This bullpen is taking its final shape 

I like this move. Exactly the type of move this org needs to make. 

Man, between Dozier, Saño, and Evan White have to think our next moves will be guys like Jon Singleton, Scott Kingery, maybe a Ken Giles or Mike Minor comeback?
Dallas Keuchel on a ST invite. Book it.
(fwiw these are fine, just kinda funny that we’re cornering this market)